Sheikh Hasina yesterday told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that she had urged the opposition BNP to place its proposal on polls-time administration’s structure in the next parliamentary session and that her party was ready to discuss the proposal.
Ban called ruling Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina over telephone yesterday morning and discussed several issues, including Bangladesh’s existing political situation and the next parliamentary elections.
They talked on the phone for over half an hour, PM’s Media Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury told the Dhaka Tribune.
Hasina told the UN secretary-general that her government believed in solving problems through peaceful ways such as dialogue.
She assured Ban that the next parliamentary polls would be held in due time and that her government would take all-out efforts to make the polls credible and neutral.
She also said her government was ready for a peaceful handover of power.
She said more than 6,000 elections had been held under the incumbent government electing some 47,000 representatives of people, but no one could question the election process.
“The government gave the opposition an offer for talks but the opposition leader turned it down and issued a 48-hour ultimatum and threatened to oust the government. This stand of the opposition leader led to an unstable situation marked by violence, terrorism and subversive activities,” Iqbal Sobhan quoted Hasina as telling Ban Ki-moon.
The ruling Awami League and the main opposition BNP have been in a standoff centring the nature of the administration for overseeing the next general elections. The PM recently declared that the polls would be held as per the constitutional provisions and that she would not deviate from the constitution. On the other hand, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia also made clear that her party would not participate in any election under a partisan government and asked the government to place a bill in parliament to restore the caretaker government system.
Hasina told Ban that in the last session of parliament her party had decided to discuss an adjournment motion on the caretaker government system placed by a BNP lawmaker, but the opposition party later withdrew it.
The UN secretary-general listened to the PM but did not make any recommendation for overcoming the prevailing situation, said Iqbal Sobhan.
In the beginning of the conversation, Ban Ki-moon conveyed his condolences to Hasina over the killing of her family members on August 15, 1975 and the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004. He praised the PM and her government for achieving the millennium development goal, moving forward the country’s economic growth and flourishing the democratic process.
Ban Ki-moon also congratulated Hasina for her government’s success in curbing militancy and fundamentalism and expressed hope that her government would continue the efforts in future.